The Aftermath
by Cornerofmadness
Summary: Now that Malcolm and Ainsley are hospitalized, Gil has to question Jessica while trying to compartmentalize his own fear and worry.


**Title** \- The Aftermath

**Timeline/Spoilers** \- Assume spoilers up to the most recent episode and speculation on the fall out of _Alone Time_

**Warning** \- angst

**Author's Note** \- Written for cozy_coffee in comment_fic for the prompt Any, any family, family ties. This is a follow up to my story Depths of Delusion but it is a stand alone so you don't have to read that one. It does however have spoilers for the end of _Alone Time_

XXX

Gil staggered back to room 515, exhausted to the point of delirium but his job wasn't over yet. He'd just gotten off the phone with his bosses and they'd hammered out the way things were going to go with the Watkins case. He would do the interviews with the Whitly family. JT would work with Swanson and deal with the crime scene and interview Watkins when he regained consciousness. When he got into the room, Dani was half asleep in a chair next to the window, waiting for him to start the interview. Either the Milton name or the money had gotten Jessica what she wanted, a hospital room shared by her children. Ainsley was near the window, out cold, sleeping hard from the looks of it. He already knew she had a serious concussion and a head full of staples but she would recover. Malcolm had still been in surgery when his bosses called him in.

Malcolm was in the room now, also asleep with an IV in his arm, blood, saline and god knows what else running into him. Probably an antibiotic, Gil thought, unable for a moment to tear his gaze away from him. For a second it seemed unreal that Malcolm was alive even though he never let himself consider the fact Malcolm was dead. If he had, he probably wouldn't have fared much better than Martin. Jessica, on the other hand, had such strength. In spite of all her failings, she hadn't let her fear destroy her. She jumped straight into action. At the moment, she sat in the type of recliner that a hospital could be laid all the way flat to allow someone to sleep.

Hearing him in the doorway, Jessica canted her gaze to him. She stood, took a few steps toward him and finally broke. She took a shuddering gasp and began to cry. Dani stood as well but let Gil be the one to cross over to Jessica. He pulled her to him, letting her cry on his shoulder. Martin's mocking words echoed in Gil's head about not deserving a woman like Jessica, about how he thought Gil wanted her. It wasn't exactly like that. She had been bound up in his life for years and it hadn't always been an easy relationship. Her family had been melded with his. Family ties were always a strange convoluted thing. Malcolm had been his son for twenty years and there was no yearning to Malcolm's father. He _was_ in all the ways that mattered. It took all Gil had not to cry with Jessica and only managed it because he didn't want Dani to see him cry.

Finally, Jessica stepped back and Gil guided her to the recliner again. Dani handed her the cheap, thin hospital tissues. Jessica took them with a watery smile. Gil took the free chair, looking between the siblings. Oddly he never felt that fatherly toward Ainsley nor did she ever seem to need him or Jackie the way Malcolm had. That might have been the strangest part of their non-traditionally blended family. Only part of it needed him and his wife. And for a long while Jessica and Jackie had gotten along before jealousy took over. In the end she hadn't even bothered to come to Jackie's funeral or send word. It was hard to forgive but he was a forgiving by nature. It had been hard on Jessica, left friendless by Martin, to realize that her son saw someone else as 'the fun mom.'

"I guess this is when you two interrogate me," Jessica said.

"We have questions but first, tell me about him." Gil nodded to Malcolm.

Jessica struggled to take in another deep breath in a vain attempt to calm herself. "They had to pin the bones of his hand back together. The stab wound was deep. It hit his spleen and the upper part of his stomach."

"Damn," Dani muttered.

"Did they have to take out the spleen?" Gil swallowed hard, picturing years of sickness ahead with an immune system that was compromised. He didn't want to see Malcolm like that.

She shook her head. "They were able to stitch it, the stomach too. They said they might have to put him on an NG tube until he heals. I'm not even sure what that is."

"A tube to feed him." He didn't tell her it went up the nose. She would probably remember on her own when she calmed down because he bet Martin told her something about that part of his life. "You fought off John Watkins, Jess. Tell us what you can."

"He threatened my children," she growled. "I wasn't going to let him kill them. He might have taken me first but he wasn't getting them without a fight."

Out of the corner of his eye, Gil saw Dani's eyebrows climb. She didn't know Jessica well of course, probably only saw her as a spoiled socialite. Maybe Malcolm had told her that his mother drank too much or let herself into his place unannounced or invited. He accepted that as the weirdness of his family. Martin had, of course, destroyed Jessica nearly as thoroughly as he had his son. "Walk us through it."

"We were doing what you asked, Ainsley and me. We were looking at the pictures and Ainsley recognized the angel from one of the pictures."

Gil snapped his head back. "What?"

"Mrs. Watkins had a bunch of creepy angels," Dani reminded him and he nodded.

"She found one of the angels in a box in _our_ house. I thought her father gave it to her as child, one of the last things he did but she reminded me gave her a book on Marie Curie. I always thought it was weird thing for Martin to give her. Gil, that monster was in my house. Ainsley called him Mr. Boots. I thought he was an imaginary friend at the time. She thought he was a ghost because she followed him into the basement and he disappeared. That _thing_ was coming into my home, talking to my baby girl, giving her things. He could have done anything, because somehow he and Martin found a secret passage under our house."

"And that's where he came into the home after you."

"Worse, he carried my _son_ into the home under my own nose without me actually knowing it. He tortured Malcolm in his own home, stabbed him, nearly killed him and all the time I was right upstairs." Her voice broke and she pressed a tissue against her mouth and nose.

"Don't think about it, Jess. You couldn't have known. I was in the living room myself and I had no clue." Gil shuddered. He could have been standing there talking to Jessica while Watkins was burying a knife in Malcolm's chest.

"I should have known, should have _felt_ it when he was hurting my baby."

"You can't think like that, Jess."

"Can I think I'm an idiot for running up the stairs instead out into the street where we could have screamed for help? The reporters were probably still out there!" She snapped.

"Panic makes us do strange this, ma'am," Dani said softly.

"She's right. Remember Jackie used to do a haunted house at Halloween? She said people ran into walls to get away all the time and that was all make believe. Give yourself credit, Jessica. You survive a serial killer's attack."

"I was going to dig his throat out with scissors but I couldn't get through the door without him hitting me with the axe first. He had a longer reach." She sighed. "I did slam him in the head with a lamp, got Ainsley out of there as a result."

"You did good, believe me," Gil said.

"I don't understand something, Gil. He could have killed me and Ainsley. I might have been able to wound him but he _should_ have been able to get it. I taunted him that Malcolm was coming for him but I didn't know if Malcolm had a weapon. Neither did Watkins. He just stopped when Malcolm said he was going to lock him in the dark."

"We won't know why until either Malcolm or Watkins wake up."

She nodded. "You were en route even before I called. How did you know?"

"Martin. When Dani told me, Malcolm wasn't in the cabin, I pulled him back out of the hole they had him in. He told me about the secret passages. For a moment, he almost believed me that Malcolm wasn't dead. He was sure that Watkins would have killed him outright."

"Did he even care?"

"He had a panic attack and had to be sedated. There is one thing he does care about, and that's Malcolm. He sure as hell was jealous that I'm involved at all," Gil responded.

"Good. Don't tell him Malcolm's here. Let him think he's dead," she snarled and he was fine with that idea."

"Gil, will Malcolm be all right? He hallucinated a trunk. In my living room as if I would ever have anything like that. I know the trauma that trunk caused him. I would never." Jessica bit the words off. "I'm afraid Gil. What if this finally broke him."

"He's been through a lot. Don't worry about the trunk he saw. Let him heal and then if we see anything strange, then we'll deal with it."

"Gil." Dani hissed in warning. She pointed to the bed.

He turned to see Malcolm thrashing. Gil jumped up and sat on the edge of the bed. He put a hand on Malcolm's shoulder giving him a gentle shake, "Malcolm, it's okay. You're safe."

Malcolm sat bolt upright and cried out in pain and fear. Gil caught him in a hug as Jessica captured them both in her arms. She held so tight he couldn't move for several long moments. When she released her tight hold, he rested Malcolm back on the bed.

"You need to stay still, Malcolm. You're full of stitches," Jessica said. "I'm going to talk to the doctor. I know they don't like to use restraints anymore but you're going to need them."

Malcolm's eyelids fluttered shut. Gil hoped the anesthetics would take him back under. His eyes suddenly snapped open and he tried to struggle up but Gil didn't let him.

"Listen to your mother. Stay still," he said.

"Watkins."

"He's in custody," Dani said.

He shook his head. "He said…camping trip. Dad was going to kill me."

With that he slipped back away. Next to him, Jessica's breathing was ragged, nearly asthmatic. Gil couldn't find words for the hand grenade Malcolm just lobbed into his family's life. Was that true? If it was, Martin was lucky to be in Claremont because Gil would kill the man himself if Jessica didn't beat him to it. Dani stared at him, at a loss as well, horror in her eyes. Was it the truth? Should he even attempt to find discover if it was? Gil had no answers, just horrible questions. Watkins was captured but none of this was over. He could only hope they were ready for what came next.


End file.
